Melon carrier



July 16, 1963 w. R. HOUSTON, JR 3,097,774

MELON CARRIER Filed March 19, 1962 7 I INVENTOR William R. Housfon, Jrf

United States Patent 3,097,774 MELGN CARRIER William R. Houston, Jr.,107 Rodgers Sh, Monongahela, Pa. Filed Mar. 19, 1962, Ser. No. 180,467 1Claim. (Cl. 224-45) This invention relates generally to carrying devicesand more particularly to a device for carrying garden products such aswatermelons and the like.

It is commonly known that garden products such as melons, pumpkins, etcetera are awkward and difficult for a person to carry. Various deviceshave heretofore been used to assist a person in this task such as thedevice of T. Kailey disclosed in United States Patent No. 2,978,154.However, generally speaking prior devices have not been well receivedbecause of their relative complexity and cost. I have devised a meloncarrier that is not only simple in its application and use but has astructural simplicity heretofore unattained that allows my carrier to bemanufactured so inexpensively that they are truly disposable, i.e., theycan be made cheaply enough to be given away by the produce seller andthereby avoid the necessity of the buyer carrying his own device withhim, which a buyer may understandably be reluctant to do, and whichlikely accounts for the general lack of public acceptance of priordevices in this art.

I provide a carrier for garden produce such as watermelons and the likecomprising an arched strap member formed from flexible springy materialhaving a stiffened substantially inflexible handle portion disposedcentrally thereof and stiffened substantially inflexible end portions.The ends of said end portions are forked or serrated and each turnedinwardly toward the other and slightly backwardly on itself at an acuteangle. The carrier thus may be formed from a single unitary strip ofmaterial, Preferably, the end portions and center portion are stiffenedby corrugating said portions lengthwise. The leading edge of each end ispreferably serrated to provide a number of pointed teeth therealong.

Other details, objects and advantages of the invention will becomeapparent as the following description of a present preferred embodimentthereof proceeds.

In the accompanying drawing I have shown a present preferred embodimentof the invention in which FIGURE 1 is an isometric view of the inventionshown in use with a melon;

FIGURE 2 is an enlarged side elevational view of the end portion of mymelon carrier;

FIGURE 3 is an end elevation view taken on the line III-III of FIGURE 2;and

FIGURE 4 is a bottom plan view of FIGURE 2.

Referring now to the drawing and initially to FIGURE 1, I show myinvention as it would appear in use with a melon. My melon carrier astherein shown comprises a strap member 1 which is of a generally archedconfiguration. Strap member 1 is made of a flexible springy materialsuch as ordinary steel strapping or may be made of other metal or evenplastic materials having the aforementioned flexible springcharacteristics. Strap member 1 is corrugated such as by the furrow 2and curled edges 3 adjacent thereto in the central portion thereof tostiifen said central portion and render it relatively inflexible so thatit is suitable for a handle portion. The end portions 4 are alsocorrugated to provide stiff substantially inflexible sections. Therespective ends 5 of said end por- 3,097,774 Patented July 16, 1963 I(IQ.

tions 4 are turned inwardly toward each other and moreover are turnedslightly backwardly upon themselves or upwardly toward the arch of strapmember 1 so as to form an acute angle A as most clearly illustrated inFIG- URE 2, the reasons for which will be more fully explainedhereinafter. The leading edges of ends 5 are forked or serrated to formprongs or pointed teeth 6 as best shown in FIGURE 4.

My carrier is easily applied by forcing the serrated ends 5 into therespective ends of a melon 7 and thereafter lifting the device by thehandle portion to transport the melon easily and safely. The pointedteeth 6 make it a simple matter to plunge ends 5 into the melon ends andthe fact that ends 5 are of strap width insures that the melon will notrotate in the carrier even though ends 5 are poorly centered in themelon ends.

The flexibility and springiness of strap member 1 permits my carrier tobe used with many different sizes of melons and is thus more universalin this respect. When used with shorter melons than that shown in FIGURE1, strap member 1 will simply flex or spring into a more pronouncedarch. To insure that the carrier does not inadvertently pull out at themelon ends, I preferably provide that not only ends 5 are corrugated butalso that the entire end portion 4 which extends partway up the arch iscorrugated to thus prevent ends 5 from flexing out of the melon ends. Tofurther insure against ends 5 inadvertently pulling out of the melonends, I preferably turn each end 5 not only inwardly but slightly backon itself or upwardly toward the arch so that ends 5 dig into the melonends even more as the carrier is lifted. Even so, it is apparent that mycarrier may be easily removed from the melon by the person simplyreleasing the handle and pulling carrier ends 5 out of the melon ends.

It is also clear from the foreging description that my device can bemade from a single strip of material with a minimum of formingoperations to provide a useful carrier article of such negligible costthat in a practical manner of speaking it may truly be termeddisposable.

While I have shown and described a present preferred embodiment of theinvention, it is to be distinctly understood that the invention is notlimited thereto but may be otherwise variously embodied within the scopeof the following claim.

I claim:

A melon carrier comprising an arched strap member of flexible springymaterial, said arched strap member being a continuous unitary strip ofuniform width and having its end portions corrugated lengthwise wherebysaid end portions are substantially stiff and inflexible, the ends ofsaid end portions each being turned inwardly directly toward the otherand partly backwardly on the balance of its respective end portion toform an acute angle therewith, the leading edges of said ends beingserrated to form teeth therealong, said arched strap member beingcorrugated lengthwise in the central portion thereof to form asubstantially stiff and inflexible handle portion therein.

Peebels Mar. 19, 1867 Wright Oct. 30, 1956

